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The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of English animal-related terms used figuratively with reference to types of parenting. To be more precise, we make an attempt to investigate the scope of the conceptual metaphor PARENTS ARE ANIMALS. What ignited our interest was the ubiquity of linguistic metaphors featuring animal terms employed with reference to types of parenting present in everyday language, thus we have decided to delve into what types of animals are typical source domains in metaphors of this type. The methodology adopted is the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, originally proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) and further developed in numerous subsequent publications, especially those by Kövecses (2003, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2017a, 2017b). Our results are supported by evidence from the online Corpus of Contemporary American English and News on the Web Corpus, which may be said to corroborate not only the conceptual nature of metaphors as such, but also their impact on social cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs the Cognitive Linguistics paradigm to argue that flirtation, especially verbal, may be interpreted as a phenomenon resulting from the working of two conceptual mechanisms, namely metaphor and metonymy. As far as the corpus of the present paper is concerned, the analysis is predominantly based on dialogues extracted from the film "Double Indemnity" (1944) directed by Billy Wilder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we shall discuss the semantics of the lexical items which have been employed with reference to nakedness. The theoretical framework adopted in this article is that of cognitive linguistics, whose emergence in the second half of the 20th century gave a new impetus to semantic research. In particular, we shall discuss the words which denoted nakedness in the past, but which fell into oblivion (e.g. unbehelod, nscrȳdd), we shall also focus on the similes (e.g. as naked as a jaybird, naked as a robin, naked as a worm, naked as a needle) as well as the phrases and idioms (e.g. mother naked, belly naked, in the buff, in stag, in the altogether, in the nude, in one's birthday suit, in a state of nature, in the raw) which pertain to the conceptual category NAKEDNESS. Furthermore, we attempt to answer the following research questions: (1) What processes are the most productive in terms of creating new synonyms of nakedness? (2) How many metaphorical schemas can be formulated on the basis of the analysis? (3) How many and which conceptual domains play a crucial role in the rise of the new lexical items whose senses are connected with the conceptual category NAKEDNESS? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The language of intimacy and - in particular - terms of affection, which constitutes its major element, are a significant part of our everyday language. The first such terms came forth as early as Anglo-Saxon times and this conceptual category is still being constantly enlarged with new lexical items. The key objective of our paper is to examine a mere fraction of this extensive conceptual category, by confining our analysis to those terms that were employed at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries. To be more precise, we shall focus on nine terms of endearment which were used by Shakespeare in his works. By means of the cognitive apparatus, we will trace the semantic development of these words and, finally, we will search for their traces in modern dictionaries of English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insulting seems to be as old the history of the mankind. From the very beginning of our existence people have been interested in themselves and they have always been humilitating those weaker, poorer or less attractive ones. This article aims at presenting the scope of vocabulary used as the synonyms of skinny and fatty. First, we shall focus on the way fat and skinny people have been perceived throughout history. Interestingly enough, at various historical monents, and - in various parts of the world - the stereotypes about fat and skinny people have been changing and complementing. Then, we proceed to present the gender-specific division of all synonyms which have been taken into consideration. It is fitting to add that the number of means which are there at one's disposal to describe a fat person is nearly twice as numerous as the list of those words that serve to encode the idea of being skinny. And last but not least, by means of cognitive apparatus and methodology we shall present the similarities and differences betweeen the synonyms of skinny and fatty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]